Wake the Blind – Broken Casket (EP Review)

Posted on June 9, 2020 by Ricky Aarons

Wake the Blind – Broken Casket EP
Released: June 12th, 2020

Line-Up

Dylan Stone – Vocals
Adam Spackman – Drums
Anthony Georgiou – Guitar
Brandon Tadday – Guitar
Adam Humphreys – Bass

The isolation induced creative juices have been flowing heavily, and metal seems to be particularly thriving as new music is getting thrown about all over the place. Melbourne has been sparking some wild new artists to enter the scene, and today we want to blow your minds with Wake the Blind’s ‘Broken Casket’ EP.

Self-described as nu-metalcore, Wake the Blind have emerged on the scene with single ‘Patient’ featuring Wither’s David De La Hoz who’s band have also exploded onto the scene. Wake the Blind open their upcoming EP with this belter of a track the digs into your earholes parasitising attention. The band are kind of a fusion between The Devil Wears Prada x Sworn In, as their screeching vocals and guitars connect with immense chaos and momentum of the rest of the band; oh and man, the drums are pounding!

It’s worth just discussing ‘Patient’s music video for a moment as well. Do yourself a favour, and watch this shit on a big screen; all the pixels and all the headphones. It’s worth it even to just witness the production that went into it. For an emerging local band, this video perfectly encapsulates the energy of the song and the enthusiasm of the band who are enforcing their heights of emotion into the audio and the visuals. De La Hoz, who features, is equally as energetic as Wake the Blind, and it’s clear he’s giving it all he’s got, and playing into the asylumatic theme. This track gives you just a small taster of the ferocious breakdowns that this band are capable of. Let’s keep going shall we?!

‘Nix’ is next up on the EP. It begins mysteriously and then kicks into a melodic punch with a metalcore sting, that you can easily groove to. The nu-metal elements immediately shine through as Dylan Stone raps through the opening verse with the continuous groove. I love how the verse is a train that hits the tiny tunnel and explodes into that Sworn In influenced busting vocal split, where Stone spits short lines as the guitars erratically shift up and down. It’s a beautiful noise. The clean vocals really compliment the band’s sound with the crescendo of their breakdowns. Once again, the production of this EP is absolutely delicious.

‘X2’ makes the mid-way point of the EP – a track that Wake the Blind have revealed to the world already. The song explodes immediately with some of the crunchiest riffs you will have heard in a while. Stone purges a filthy verse as the song rapidly breaks down into oblivion. There’ a really nice rhythm behind the chaos though. The band definitely reveal influences from their peers in Wither given what we’ve seen from those guys in the past year or so. The high pitched squeal vocals are perpetuated across the roaring metalcore engine of the band that ebbs and flows accordingly. The last chapter of the song breaks down menacingly, and will rip your neck off if you lean into its head-banging capacities.

By now, you’ll definitely have a flavour for Wake the Blind and have allowed yourself to fully immerse into their romantically neurotic and heavy energy. ‘Casket’ gives the band a breather with a clean vocal and slow emerging verse to kick things off. It definitely builds though. It’s ominous like a thunderstorm. As the lightning hits, the bass button is pressed and although the tempo is steadily building, the vocal energy is flying. This is a really nice song because it encompasses the musical diversity the band are capable of. Towards the end, the band give you the blistering mayhem that their preceding tracks provided, once again enhancing the mood of the song, and preparing you for the EP closer.

‘Teeth’ gets started with an electro buzz that you know is transitionary. The rhythmic guitars have a moment of isolation before Stone’s rap-verse jumps in briefly before the recipe of nu-metal cleans meet them. That mysterious high-pitched guitar sits on behind the rise and fall of the vocal shifts. This nu-metal to and fro is temporary though, as the metalcore gene of the band takes over with a tasty little breakdown on the back-end of the song. Wake the Blind were certainly not going to let this release finish with a calming mood. The Linkin Park-esque cleans return once more with some bouncy bass to cleanse that heavy palette of yours.

All I can say is, damn. Give this little gem a spin. Cannot wait until bands can play live again to get a glimpse of this outfit.